You Can't Buy Tiffany At Costco

For years Costco has been selling what they call Tiffany rings

. For years Tiffany did nothing about it saying they had no idea something like this was going on. Tiffany said it was only last year they discovered from a customer tip that Costco had sold thousands of rings they called Tiffany rings. Tiffany is suing. I understand Tiffany wanting to sue. What I don't understand is how no one from their company or customer or salesperson or anyone else from the company ever noticed what Costco was doing. What it shows to me is that no one at Tiffany does any kind of market research or sees what is out there or why Costco suddenly had a huge share of the diamond sales. I also find it hard to believe that in the past few years no one wondered why Tiffany diamonds were 50% cheaper at Costco and no one said anything to Tiffany.

I'm guessing that it's more a matter of using a "Tiffany-style" setting rather than actual diamonds from Tiffany, and it's a matter of copyright infringement for using the word "Tiffany" to describe their rings.

BTW, WTF is going on w/Lil' Wayne saying obscene things about Emmett Till in a song that has the latter's family upset? From what I've been able to piece together, apparently he compared the way the poor kid looked in his casket to female genitalia or some such? Does he NOT know his history? Why would it occur to him to even think such a thing, much less be ignorant and heartless enough to actually put it on a song? And to think he's been spawning all those children…looks like it's time to up the chlorination in the gene pool, bigtime. *sigh*

I think they should sue too. For years, Costco has been getting the advantage of the ultra-high-end Tiffany name without having to provide the expensive Tiffany overhead. I always assumed that Costco had Tiffany's permission.

I don't see any Tiffany labeling on the package, so I'm still not sure if it was "Tiffany Styled." If it was Tiffany, I'm disappointed in Costco, who treats their employees great. I've seen the same people working there for 20 years. I adore their latte freezes!

@FSP, I hate those commercials so much: Jared's, Kay, etc. I told my fiance, that, too, so he went to a local place. I told him casually, of course. You know. Just in case he ever wanted to get me a ring.

Anyone buying a diamond should do their research of where it came from, the clarity, raw value of the stone. If you are buying a diamond at Costco I bet you are not that concerned. I have a few Tiffany items, none with labels on them other then the stamp on the inside, I got them as gifts and love them for the simplicity. But that has been years ago and I try to only buy antique diamonds now.

I have an image in my head of a bejeweled Audrey Hepburn in a black dress standing outside Costco peering through the glass doors at 7:00 AM dreaming of all the family pack sized household goods she could buy if she could just marry a rich guy.

This all started from a story from years ago, when 20/20 did an investigation into the diamonds sold at Costco. They compared Tiffany's diamonds to Costco's and the Costco gems were found to be of equal quality but sold at a much greater value. You were essentially paying $10000 more just for the Tiffany name. http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=1197202. Costco has been promoting their "Tiffany"-like diamonds ever since.

🙂 my engagement ring is from Costco. It's a Canadian diamond. I love it, it makes for a funny story. We got engaged spontaneously and my MIL called the next day not trying to tell us what to do but making us aware that they had good diamonds at Costco. We looked into it and agreed. Only 2 (funny) problems: finding someone to open the jewelry case (took a few minutes, the guy in the TV section did not know what to do, haha) and hubby forgot you can't pay with a credit card there so we actually had to go all the way home, transfer $, then come back. The cashiers went from being super excited for us to "you can't pay with that" in no time flat, haha. I've had the ring almost 5 years now with no problems and it is valued at higher than we paid for it on our insurance.

Costco is the most straight-up company out there, we do business with them. I am sure ther is more to this story, tiffany "cut" tiffany "setting" not sure that anyone should care about this litigation, since the person buying the 50K ring at Tiffany's is NOT doing comparison shopping at Costco…

Ummm, Costco rocks! And shopping there doesn't mean you're poor, it means you're smart with your money and buy good quality products for less. I've always assumed they weren't selling Tiffany, but that it's a very commonly known Tiffany styled ring made by Costco. I have a feeling Tiffany will lose this considering many companies label their products as "Tiffany" copies.

Because, as everyone knows, real love needs to be expensive and flashy. It's all about the name brand of your ring. If he loves you, he wouldn't want to be practical and save money for your life together. He would want to splurge on a rock regardless of your life situation. It's the diamond, not the marriage, that is important. In case I am being too subtle –

It's funny to me that people are saying you're cheap if you shop at Costco. Obviously you've never been there! If you want to know how the economy is doing, go to Costco on the weekend! CRAZY busy!In all seriousness, I highly doubt Costco is trying to 'rip off' the Tiffany name. They are very well known to be highly ethical, etc. The contrast between Sam's Club and Costco is incredibly huge. Sam's Club is a poor man's Costco. And Costco is NOT cheap. Some of the items may be cheaper, but seriously, can you EVER leave there with spending less than $100?!

If they had just put "Tiffany-STYLE" on the rings they might have gotten away with it. The internet is full of "Tiffany-style" jewelry, all with slightly different designs than the originals so they don't get called on it.

The tip-offs to Costco consumers would have been no Tiffany mark on the inside of the rings, and no turquoise Tiffany boxes.

And while I've never bought diamonds from Costco, I have bought several pieces of simple gold jewelry for myself and as gifts, and none of it has turned anyone's fingers or ears green. The quality is the same as jewelry sold in any middling department store.

Per CNN Money, Costco advertised on in-store signs as "Tiffany" diamond engagement rings for sale. Cannot find any verification that the Tiffany trademark was actually on any rings. FYI: at Tiffany, you are primarily paying for the blue box.

I went to Costco on Monday to buy nothing but vegetables for a no meat week. It cost me 125 bucks. But I have/had enough to give some to my mom for her cooking. And I brought a bunch to work for co-workers. Insane amount of veggies, probably about 25 to 30 lbs.

The Costco in Concord, Ca said "Tiffany Setting" on the sign. My friend is proposing to his girlfriend sometime soon, so I walked by and remember seeing the sign and checking out a few rings for him.

Love Costco. Because that unholy, terrible, Monsanto of the brewing world – AB InBev trying to buy Grupo Modelo, Costco has stoppped carrying Bud, Bud Light, Stella and Modelo citing the fact that AB Inbev was trying to shake them down. Had a hug sign over their beer display. Gotta love a company that's willing to do that.

We bought our wedding sets at Costco… after doing a lot of research (retail, outlet mall, estate, custom jeweler, etc.), no other company came close in offering the quality of diamond & setting that we got from there. It was also a "tiffany-style" ring. We paid close to $10k (not cheap) and the ring is valued at closer to $20K. We did it online and it arrived via courier two days later. I would rate the whole experience as very, very good. Oh! And because we used our Costco American Express card, we got an insane bonus back the following year. Win=Win. Costco has a policy of only adding 11% I think to any item it sells, they make their money in volume. I have a lot of respect for them as a company.

Costco is one of the biggest diamond wholesalers out there, if not the biggest. The diamonds are appraised and measured by all the normal standards.

A Tiffany setting is 6 pronged setting – the usual standard is 4 prongs. No one going to Costco actually thinks they're literally getting a diamond ring from Tiffany's. There are no blue boxes being sold or anything like that. The only question that I have is if Tiffany's trademarked the 6 prong setting, but I highly doubt it. Sounds like they're just being jerks and looking for some press.

Oh yeah, I forgot! CNBC did a show about Costco, and I think it was on there they showed some of the super-expensive things they sometimes carry. They had some high-end handbags, and some giant diamonds, similar to that link above.

My old boss bought one of his fiancées z diamond from Costco and it weren't cheap! But it was gorgeous. I had the fresh hell of going there last night with hubs and MIL. Since it's just the two of us we typically get out of there for $300 twice a year. AND their tuna is really the best (Kirkland brand) .

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